COP15: for China to achieve its ecological goals, SOEs must improve their biodiversity footprint

This week, China assumes the presidency of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, a treaty that has long served to coordinate global efforts to prevent biodiversity loss.

Between now and next spring, Kunming hosts the convention’s Conference of Parties (COP15), where critical negotiations will determine whether the global community can arrest the biodiversity crisis that, unchecked, could leave half the world’s described species extinct by the end of the century.

Not on the agenda but an important subtext of the meetings is the biodiversity footprint of Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs), and what steps they must take to fulfil the Chinese government’s calls for an “ecological civilisation”.

Kunming is the natural location for such an important event. It is the capital of Yunnan, a province representing just 4 per cent of China’s land area but more than 50 per cent of its biological species. Yunnan is also home to the Three Parallel Rivers, a Unesco World Heritage Site claimed as “the most biodiverse and least disturbed temperate ecosystems in the world”.